8 Essential Tips For Downloading iOS 8

Do it the right way

Yes it's great that iOS 8 has finally arrived, but truth be told, it wants your gigs. In order to install it on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you’ll need to free up at least 5.7 gigabytes depending on your phone model. If, like lots of people, you have a 16 GB phone, this means a massive spring clean of your photos, videos, music and apps. What's more annoying is that the previous version, iOS 7, only needed 2.9GB of space to install. Here are some tips that will make your life so much easier today.

1. Find Out How Much Storage You Need

To find out how much storage you need, go to Settings > General > Software Update. If you need to download 7.1.2, do that first, and once you have the iOS 8 screen, it will say whether you can download the update or if you have to clear out some space first.

2. Keep in mind that the majority of the iOS 8 installation storage requirement is temporary.

It's not going to ruin your phone forever.

3. Delete Photos & Videos

The quickest way to create space is to delete photos and videos.

4. Deleting Apps

If your phone is cluttered with apps that you never use, now's the opportunity to get rid of them. It's obviously best if you start with large apps. You can sort these by size by going to Settings > General > Usage, or by selecting the App tab in iTunes and sorting by size.

5. Delete Messaging Thread

A good trick that you mightn't think of, suggested by Dwight Silverman at the Houston Chronicle, is to delete long-winded, media-heavy iMessage threads from your Messages app.

6. See If You Can Bypass The 5 GB rule

There are reports that some people have been able to install the update without having their full space quota. Chance your arm and see if it will work. Otherwise get back to steps 3-5.

7. Install iOS 8

Once you’ve cleared out the required storage, go back to Settings > General > Software Update and click update. Or...

8. Sync your iPhone or iPad to the computer and download iOS 8 directly from there.

This is the ultimate tip. Updating this way means you won't clog up any space on your device. It's a much more reliable way to update, and once the download is complete you can manually transfer the new software back to your device.

Finally, just wait....

The download should take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour depending on current traffic. Good luck!

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